Martin O’Neill 'feeling much better' after returning to work at Celtic

Celtic manager Martin O’Neill has reported good news about his health after getting back into work.

The 74-year-old quickly addressed his medical situation as he sat down for an interview on the club’s Celtic Player channel, one week after spending a night in hospital after undergoing what the club called a “small procedure”.

O’Neill was absent from Celtic’s 5-1 win at Kilmarnock on Sunday but did deliver a pre-match team talk at the players’ hotel.

When asked how he was feeling, the former Republic of Ireland manager said: “Much better than last week anyway. Yeah, a couple of ailments rolled into one, unfortunately, but I’m getting there, which is good news.”

O’Neill was delivered another boost after the thumping win when Celtic completed the transfer of Egypt winger Haissem Hassan from Real Oviedo on Wednesday night.

The 24-year-old former France youth international impressed in the World Cup after switching allegiances but O’Neill revealed he was a long-term target.

“We’d been tracking him in January time,” the former Northern Ireland international said.

“We were hoping that we’d be able to do something. Oviedo, obviously, at the bottom end of the league, were unwilling to let anybody go at that stage. Totally understandable. So, it wasn’t as if to say it was just like an afterthought for us in the last couple of weeks. Far from it.

“We have been chasing him, a number of players, in that sort of position that we feel as if they will add something to us. And he very, very much fitted the bill.

“When he gets to see the surroundings here, I just think he’ll glow. I think he will.

“People start to think about the number of things that players can’t do and I think you have to stay more in the positive of what players can do. Going past players now is a sort of a dying art, which is really almost unforgivable in football.

“That’s what fans get excited about. And actually, to tell you the truth, so do fellow players.”